Hello,
I will soon have to follow the release implementation and, as a consequence, keep track of what is installed on the platform. We do not have any good tool to manage the CMDB which is actually a junction of many bad tools.
My concern deals with the subset of the CMDB which will allow me to manage the releases :
- I would like to design a good model (and the subsequent database) that will first help me to manually keep track of the releases installation. If we later buy a product, my data model will become a contribution to the specifications of this products.
- We have some automatic tools that check the actual installed software on the platforms. But I do not know what method to use in order to compare what is installed and what should be installed.

I absolutely do not know what way to follow to set up this release management. Any experience here ?

I am working on a release management process implementation, after having documented a configuration management process. So I think we can exchange some interesting experiences on these topics.

First, I will comment some points on your post:

Quote:

I will soon have to follow the release implementation and, as a consequence, keep track of what is installed on the platform

Keeping track of installed software has nothing to do with release management. It is usually an audit procedure from configuration process.

Quote:

We do not have any good tool to manage the CMDB which is actually a junction of many bad tools.

There is no such thing as a good CMDB tool. So don't worry, you are not alone.

Quote:

- I would like to design a good model (and the subsequent database) that will first help me to manually keep track of the releases installation.

What do you mean by a model for keeping track of releases? In order to do it, you just need a release calendar and release records. To start with, all you need is paper...

Quote:

- We have some automatic tools that check the actual installed software on the platforms. But I do not know what method to use in order to compare what is installed and what should be installed.

Again, this has nothing to do with release management. It is up to configuration management (through periodic audits) to check it out. And here is a good example (maybe the only one) of the utility of a discovery tool. Usually, this kind of tool (if integrated with your CMDB) can compare what is installed versus what should be installed, and even open an incident or a change record whenever there is a discrepancy (if integrated with your service desk tool).

But of course, you can always do it manually. Good luck!

Quote:

I absolutely do not know what way to follow to set up this release management. Any experience here?